As Christopher Wang, the underachieving son of Ping-Pong entrepreneurs, Jimmy Tsai gently but hilariously burlesques hip-hop as a youth culture lingua franca. On the surface this is a matter of swagger and slang (“what up, my ninja?!”), but there’s a deeper, touching acknowledgment of braggadocio as persona, how the commodified dissent of hip-hop lends itself to masking insecurities.

Mr. Tsai wrote the film with the director, Jessica Yu, a filmmaker best known for “In the Realms of the Unreal,” her inventive if overdesigned documentary about the outsider artist Henry Darger. Ms. Yu’s visual flair enlivens the verbal panache of her feature debut; “Ping Pong Playa” is a bright, nimble diversion, a quick-witted picture that’s fast on its feet.

That comedic pep is a boon, given the formulaic plot, which finds Christopher pressed into filling in for his injured mother at the local community center, teaching Ping-Pong to assorted goofballs, then enlisting them as his “grasshopper” posse when he enters a table tennis tournament. En route to the big game come a few of the usual elements — a love interest; training montages; silly, neo-imperialist white dudes — and a lot of fresh and funny insights.

PING PONG PLAYA

Opens on Friday in Manhattan.

Directed by Jessica Yu; written by Ms. Yu and Jimmy Tsai; director of photography, Frank G. DeMarco; edited by Zene Baker; music by Jeff Beal; production designer, Denise Hudson; produced by Anne Clements and Joan Huang; released by IFC Films. Running time: 1 hour 36 minutes.